Affichage de 284 résultats

Edwards, John Oswald Valentine, brother of Edward Cecil Theodore Edwards (qv); b. 14 Feb. 1912; adm. Jan. 1926 (A), (B) Sept. 1926; left July 1930; Keble Coll. Oxf., matric. 1930, BA 1933, MA 1937; 2nd Lieut. E. Surrey Regt Jan. 1932, Lieut. Jan. 1935, Capt. Jan. 1940, attached Burma Defence Force; killed in action at Paungde, Burma, 10 Apr. 1942.

John Oswald Valentine Edwards was born at Oxford, Oxfordshire on the 14th of February 1912 the third and youngest son of the Reverend Robert Stephen Edwards, Vicar of Westcote Barton, and Anne Rosalie Tannatt (nee Pryce) Edwards of Westcote Barton, Rectory, later of 25, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford and of 56, Elsham Road, Kensington in London. He was christened at the Church of St Mary and St John, Cowley on the 9th of March 1912. He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford from May 1918 to 1919 and returned as a boarder from May 1922 to 1925. He went on to Westminster School where he was up Ashburnham from January 1926 and up Busby’s from September 1926 to July 1930. He rowed for his House in 1928, winning House Colours the following year, and was a member of the 1st Rowing VIII in 1930 where he rowed at bow and won his School Colours in the same year. The Elizabethan wrote the following of his 1930 season: - “He carried out the rowing tradition of his family in spirit if not in bulk. He hunched his shoulders and ducked his head coming forward, which is not good for breathing, nor for getting a swift beginning –and his finish tended to be awkward with the same hunch, but he was an effective oar through his good blade work, and his knowledge of how to drive.”
He was a member of the Officer Training Corps and was promoted to Lance Corporal in September 1930.
He matriculated for Keble College, Oxford in 1930 and was awarded a BA in 1933 and a MA in 1937. He rowed for his College while he was at Oxford, winning the Challenge Pairs with E.L. Dams in 1932. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant as a University Candidate on the General List on the 7th of July 1931. He was elected as a member of the London Rowing Club in 1932.
He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant to the East Surrey Regiment from the General List on the 28th of October 1933, with seniority from the 28th of January 1932. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 28th of January 1935. He served in India from 1935 to 1937 and then at Khartoum in the Sudan. He was seconded to the Burma Defence Force and was transferred to the Special Employed List. He served as the second in command of the Myitkyina Battalion, Burma Frontier Force from the 11th of July 1938 and was drafted to Rangoon where large scale riots were taking place that month. He was promoted to Captain on the 28th of January 1940.
Towards the end of 1940, the Regiment was reorganised and he was transferred to Frontier Force 2 (F.F.2), Burma Frontier Force. These were mobile detachments of troops made up of independent columns, which were to engage the enemy until such time as they could be joined by regular forces. F.F.2. was responsible for the defence of the Southern Tenasserim Coast and for special missions up to the border with Thailand. John Edwards was appointed to the command of No. 1 Column. In June 1941 and the unit began looking for a suitable base in the area of the village of Thawbawleik from which to operate. The new camp was constructed and when the men moved into it John Edwards and Captain Booker began a reconnaissance of the area, with John Edwards exploring the area on foot as far as the border with Thailand. In October 1941, the unit was relieved after which it spent its time watching the tracks into Burma in case of hostilities. At this time John Edwards and No. 1 Column were based at Lenya from where they reconnoitred the tracks which ran across the Thailand/Burma border. A short time later No. 1 Column received orders to move to Hnohng Hin where they were to demolish a bridge in the event of a Japanese invasion.
The Japanese invaded Burma on the 8th of December 1941 when John Edwards reported to Headquarters that he had seen unidentified aircraft flying high over the Maw Daung Pass. The following day he received orders to move to investigate reports of Japanese forces at Prachaub Khirikhan but was ordered not to engage with any enemy forces he found there. On the 10th of December the Columns were ordered to implement the destruction of the bridges as they had planned. No. 1 Column continued towards Prachaub Khirikhan and during the night of the 12th of December heavy firing was heard from the direction the Column had taken. A short while after this, two of Edward’s men arrived back at base to report that No. 1 Column had been attacked by a large number of Japanese troops and that there had been heavy casualties amongst the Burmese. By the 15th of December John Edwards and his remaining men were back at the main camp where he reported the loss of his wireless section, along with their messages and ciphers. It was decided to cancel the operation to destroy the bridges. On the 17th of December 1941, F.F.2 left the camp and on the 21st of December a patrol from the unit was sent to investigate reports of enemy landings at Bokpyin.
With the Japanese now arriving in Burma in strength it was decided to evacuate the Burmese troops from Mergui and to concentrate them at Tavoy. F.F.2 was to cover the evacuation. On the 19th of December it was decided that Tavoy was under such a threat from the advancing Japanese that the men would be evacuated to Rangoon instead. F.F.2 was evacuated between the 20th and 22nd of January 1942. When it reached Rangoon it was sent to Pyawbwe to reorganise.
Once they had rested, John Edwards was given command of No. 2 Column which was attached to the 17th Indian Division on the 10th of February where it began its new role as a Divisional Reconnaissance unit. It was to patrol the area between the road from Kyaikto to Thaton and on the coast from Kyaikto to a track running from Theinzeik to Kadaik as far as the Bilin River. It was also to support the coast watching detachments of the Burma Auxiliary Force and of the Burma Military Police and to report immediately of any Japanese landings. John Edwards had three platoons of the Burma Military Police under his command to assist with patrolling and with the general defence of the area.
On the 16th of February 1942, the Japanese began attacking the area of the Bilin River and on the 18th of February John Edwards was ordered to seek out the enemy and to attack them. By the following day the 17th Division had begun a general withdrawal and ordered F.F.2. to protect its northern flank while it did so. At 2.30pm on the 21st of February No. 2 Column was heavily engaged by enemy forces. In spite of reports that his unit had been surrounded, John Edwards managed to extricate his men and lead them towards the Sittang River, engaging enemy troops near Mokpalin on the way during which his Column became scattered. They rejoined the Division at Pegu where the Column commanders reported that their men were totally demoralised. The stragglers arrived at Pegu to rejoin the column over the next several days.
On the 10th of March 1942 he was at Tharawaddy when he and his remaining 90 men were merged with F.F.6. and were attached to the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment where they were to form a rearguard in defence of the Division’s continuing withdrawal. They followed the 17th Division’s withdrawal themselves during which time they ambushed a number of Japanese troops at Letpadan on the 18th of March causing heavy casualties amongst them. They rejoined the Division on the 30th of March at Prome. John Edwards was killed during a Japanese attack on the town of Paungde, just to the south of Prome.
A friend wrote: - “I always thought that Oswald was a great character and a most entertaining and interesting man, one of the few I really regarded as a friend. How well I remember his decided views on life and the arguments we used to have together!”
His brother, Wing Commander Edward Cecil Theodore Edwards OW, 53 Squadron, Royal Air Force, was killed in action on the 31st of August 1940.
He and his brother are commemorated on a stone in the churchyard at Westcote Barton and on the war memorials at the Dragon School and at Keble College, Oxford. He is also commemorated on the war memorial at the London Rowing Club.
He is commemorated on the Rangoon Memorial Face 13.

Long-Hartley, Paul, son of Arthur Norman Long-Hartley and Rosa Pauline, d. of Paul Long; b. 18 Apr. 1924; adm. Sept. 1937 (B); left July 1938; Flt Serg. Pathfinder Force RAF; killed in action 16 June 1944.

Paul Long-Hartley was born at Islington, London on the 18th of April 1924 the only son of Arthur Norman Long-Hartley and Rosa Pauline (nee Long, later King) Long-Hartley of 49, Barrington Court, Muswell Hill in Middlesex. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Busby’s from September 1937 to July 1938.
He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he trained as an Air Gunner and rose to the rank of Flight Sergeant.
On the night of the 15th/16th of June 1944, Bomber Command dispatched 119 Lancasters, 99 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos for operations on the railway yards at Lens and at Valenciennes. The weather was clear and the target was accurately bombed.
Paul Long-Hartley and his crew took off from RAF Little Staughton at 11.55pm on the 15th of June 1944 in Lancaster Mk III ND502 60-N for the operation on Lens. Paul Long-Hartley was not a regular member of this crew but was on standby that night as the crew’s regular mid upper gunner had burned his hand and he agreed to take the injured man’s place. Having bombed the target the aircraft was heading home when it was attacked by two enemy night fighters and shot down. It crashed at St Catherine near Arras at 1.20am with the loss of all but one of the crew.
The crew was: -
Pilot Officer Norman James Tutt (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Sidney Parr (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Harold Harris (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Richard Harry Ames (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Paul Long-Hartley (Mid Upper Gunner)
Flying Officer William Thomas Williams (Rear Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Robert Frederick Boots (Wireless Operator) (Evaded)
Theirs was one of six aircraft which were lost during the raid on Lens.
The only survivor from the aircraft was wireless operator Robert Boots, who later wrote: - “After bombing the target at Lens we were attacked by two enemy aircraft and the order was given to bale out. As the dead body of the navigator was blocking the escape hatch, I could not get out there. Flames enveloped the aircraft and suddenly I was blown out and found myself in mid-air. I landed at about 0100 hours in a field SW of Lens, and walked until I reached a cemetery where I slept the night.”
In the morning he made his way to Arras and on to Beugnatre where he was taken in by the village Mayor. He was moved to Billy Montigny which was liberated by Allied troops on the 2nd of September 1944 and he returned to England on the 11th of September 1944.
His mother received the following letter dated the 21st of June 1948: -
“It is with deep regret that I refer again to the sad loss of your son Flight Sergeant Paul Long-Hartley, but I wish to inform you that investigations undertaken by the Royal Air Force Missing Research and Enquiry Service in France have now been completed, and the following facts made known. His aircraft was shot down over the target area by a German night fighter and crashed at St. Catherine, in the northern suburbs of Arras, at 1.20am on the 16th June, 1944. Unhappily, the only survivor was Flight Sergeant Boots, who bailed out and successfully evaded capture. Upon arrival at the scene of the crash, the Germans recovered the bodies of the other six members of the crew and identified one as Pilot Officer Tutt, whom they buried in Grave 9, at St. Catherine Cemetery. Three others, whose identities could not be determined, were interred together in Grave 10, while the remaining two were taken to the Institute Pathologique, Arras prior to burial elsewhere. Enquiries made locally indicated that these two airmen were your son and Flying Officer Williams, and it was believed at first that they had been buried together in the 1914-18 British Cemetery at Arras, in Grave 4, Row 8A. Exhumation subsequently undertaken however, disproved this theory, and further extensive enquiries revealed that they had in fact been buried as unknown in Grave 69 and 71 at Arras Communal Cemetery. In an endeavour to confirm identity, exhumation was undertaken, but unhappily, it was found that both had been buried without clothing and neither could be identified. In such circumstances it was decided that in order to provide for their correct commemoration, they should be re-interred with their unidentified comrade in the grave adjacent to Pilot Officer Tutt’s at St. Catherine Cemetery. Grave 10 has therefore now been made the communal place of burial of all five members of the crew not individually identified, and re-registered accordingly in the names of Flight Sergeants Ames, Parr and Harris, Flying Officer Williams and your son. In conveying these final burial details, I wish to add that his pay book, identity card and driving licence have now been received with captured German documents relating to the crash. I am enclosing the driving licence for your retention but the other two items will be retained with your son’s official records”
He is buried at Ste. Catherine Communal Cemetery Row 2, Collective Grave 5.

Sinclair, Edward Anthony, son of Cdr Edward Wortley Sinclair RN and Edith Monteith, d. of William Bell of Burlington, Ontario; b. 29 Dec. 1918; adm. Sept. 1933 (H), (B) May 1937; left July 1937; enlisted Hampshire Reel Jan. 1940; accidentally killed on an OCTU course 1 Aug. 1940.

Edward Anthony Sinclair was born at Malta on the 29th of December 1919 the only son of Captain Edward Wortley Sinclair RN and Edythe Monteith (nee Bell) Sinclair of “Cintra”, Chislehurst Road, Petts Wood in Kent. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Homeboarders from September 1933 and up Busby’s from May 1937 to July 1937. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps where he achieved Certificate A in March 1937. He was a member of the 1st Cricket XI in 1937. On leaving school he continued his studies as a student.
He enlisted as a Private in the Hampshire Regiment in January 1940 and was posted to the Inns of Court Officer Cadet Training Unit for officer training. He was killed in an accident.
He is buried at Chislehurst Cemetery Section A, Grave 94.

Young, Henry Melvin, son of Henry George Melvin Young, solicitor, of Hertford, and Fannie Forester, d. of George Dobbridge Rowan of Los Angeles; b. 20 May 1915; adm. May 1932 (B); left July 1934; Trin. Coll. Oxf., matric. 1934, rowed against Cambridge 1938; PO RAFVR Sept. 1938, FO Mar. 1940, Flt Lieut. Apr. 1941, Sqdn Ldr June 1942, DFC (Germany) May 1941, Bar to DFC (Middle East) Sept. 1942; m. 10 Aug. 1942 Priscilla, d. of Hobart Ranson of Kent, Con­necticut; killed in raid on Mohne and Eder dams 16 May 1943.

Henry Melvin “Dinghy” Young was born at Belgravia, London on the 20th of May 1915 the only son of Henry George Melvin Young, a solicitor, and Fannie Forester (nee Rowan) Young of 117, Fore Street, Hertford in Hertfordshire. He was educated at Amesbury School, Hindhead until 1928 when his family moved to California. He went on to Kent School in Connecticut in 1930 where he started rowing. He returned to England where he attended Westminster School where he was up Busby’s from May 1932 to July 1934. He matriculated for Trinity College, Oxford in 1934 where he was the winner of the Oxford University Coxless Fours in 1936. He rowed for the Leander Club at the Henley Regatta in 1937. He rowed in the Head of the River race in 1938 and was a member of the University Boat Race crew which defeated Cambridge in 1938 where rowed at No. 2. He was awarded a Blue for Rowing in 1938. He became a member of the Oxford University Air Squadron in 1937, where he was described by his instructor, Charles Whitworth, as: - “not a natural pilot”, as he was apparently heavy handed with the controls. He later wrote that he had: - “improved considerably.... was very keen and has plenty of common sense.”
He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 13th of September 1938.
Following the outbreak of war, he reported for operational training to No. 1 Initial Training Unit, Royal Air Force on the 25th of September 1939 before going on to No. 9 Service Flying Training School.
During this period he wrote the following in a letter to the headmaster of Kent College: - “Since we had to have a war, I am more than ever glad that I am in the air force ...... though I haven’t yet had to face any of the conflict and killing of war. I am not frightened of dying if that is God’s will and only hope that I may die doing my duty as I should. In the meantime, I remain as cheerful, I think, as ever and try to keep others so”.
He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 13th of March 1940 and, on completion of his pilot training, he was posted to 102 Squadron, in June 1940.
On the 7th of October 1940, Henry Young took off in Whitley Mk V P4995 DY-P for a convoy escort mission over the Channel. During the mission the aircraft suffered from engine failure and was forced to ditch into the sea. All five of the crew managed to climb into the dinghy before the aircraft sank less than five minutes later.
The crew was: -
Flying Officer Henry Melvin Young (Pilot) (Killed in action 17th of May 1943)
Sergeant Ralph Collier (2nd Pilot) (Killed in action 28th November 1940)
Sergeant Burns
Sergeant Bird
Pilot Officer Forsdyke
They spent twenty two hours in their dinghy before they were rescued by the destroyer HMS St Mary. Their rescue was documented by Life Magazine which had one of its reporters on the board the destroyer who was writing a piece on air sea rescue operations.
The following appeared in Life Magazine’s edition of the 2nd of December 1940: - “Their raft is a huge orange doughnut, and within its circle five men are squatting, one of them frantically waving a canvas paddle aloft . . . One fellow paddles frantically until the raft bumps the ship’s side. Now our propellers boilingly backwater at the command and ropes go writhing down toward their grasping hands. A ship’s ladder goes over our side . . . One of the aviators rises wildly, unsteadily grapples at a rope, is too weak to wrap it around him, topples into the sea. Instantly a sailor goes over our rail, comes up behind the man with the loose-rolling head and wild eyes just out of the water. He ties the rope under his arms and pushes him to the dangling ship’s ladder. But he’s too weak to manage the rungs with cold hands and feet, so three sailors pull his sea-chilled body up and over out of sight of land in spite of all they could do. the side. The others with a little help from our sailors mount the wooden rungs and reach the solid safety of steel deck, and are half led, half carried down to the cozy warmth of our wardroom. Lying limp on the table, sprawled on the chairs, they are too weak even to raise their arms as we strip off their wet wool uniforms to be taken to the boiler room to dry. Their sea-water soaked flesh feels cold and dead, the texture of cold boiled oysters. Slowly then they mumble out the story. Their big bomber on patrol came down in the sea yesterday. They had just 60 seconds after it struck the water to toss their inflatable life raft in the sea and climb on before the plane sank. That afternoon they drifted. All night they slapped and rubbed each other to keep awake, which meant keeping alive. The water seemed warmer than the air. An hour after dawn they sighted a ship, waved frantically. She came within a hundred yards. They shouted and screamed at her but she passed without seeing them. They were getting ready for another night. They’d saved half their flask of brandy, intending to drink it in one big party at midnight. No, they don’t want food. Just a drink of water and then sleep. So, rubbing them down with hot, rough towels, we roll them into thick wool blankets, tuck them into our bunks where they sink immediately into sleep.”
Henry Young and his crew took off from RAF Topcliffe at 5.25pm on the 23rd of November 1940 in Whitley Mk V T4216 DY-F for an operation to Turin as one of four aircraft from the Squadron. Henry Young’s aircraft dropped two sticks of bombs on the city’s railway station from a height of 9,500 feet scoring hits on the target and adding to the large fires seen on the ground. On its return from the raid the aircraft ran short of fuel and was forced to ditch into the sea off Start Point below Topcross in Devon at 4.45am, some fifty miles out to sea. Although two of the crew were slightly injured they managed to climb into the dinghy. A search and rescue operation was mounted and the dingy was spotted by a Lysander at 5.20pm. The crew was picked up some twenty miles off the coast of Portsmouth after spending many hours at sea.
The crew was: -
Flying Officer Henry Melvin Young (Pilot) (Killed in action 17th of May 1943)
Pilot Officer Frederick George Malim (2nd Pilot) (Killed in action 13th of March 1941)
Sergeant R.G. Bristow
Sergeant Walter Edward Craven (Killed in action 8th of April 1941)
Sergeant Alfred Pearsall Clifford-Reade (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) (Killed in action 15th of April 1941)
The crew was treated for shock and minor injuries at the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth.
These two events led to him being given the nickname “Dinghy”.
He completed his tour of operations with 102 Squadron in February 1941 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was announced by the Air Ministry on the 9th of May 1941.The citation read: - "This officer has carried out 28 bombing missions involving 230 hours flying as well as 6 convoy patrols on which some 40 hours were spent in the air. His operational flights include attacks on important targets in Germany and Italy. On two occasions he has been forced down on the sea, on one of which he was in the dinghy for 22 hours in an Atlantic gale. On both occasions his courage and inspired leadership, combined with a complete knowledge of dinghy drill, were largely responsible for the survival of his crews."
He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on the 6th of April 1941.
He served for a while in a training unit before joining 104 Squadron in September 1941 and serving with them in Egypt and Malta. On completion of his second tour of operations he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross, which was announced by the Air Ministry on the 18th of September 1942.
He was promoted to Squadron leader on the 1st of June 1942.
Following the completion of his second tour of operations, he was posted to the Royal Air Force Delegation in Washington DC in July 1942. While he was there he proposed to Pricilla (nee Rawson) of Ravenscroft Farm, Kent, Connecticut, who he had met when he had attended Kent School. They were married at Kent School Chapel on the 10th of August 1942 in a service which was conducted by the Reverend W.S. Chalmers.
On his return to England in February 1943 he was posted to No. 1660 Conversion Unit based at RAF Swinderby, where he began training with a new crew on Lancasters on the 1st of March 1943. He joined 57 Squadron, based at RAF Scampton on the 13th of March 1943 where he was placed in command of C Flight. Within a few days of arriving at Scampton he, his crew and the four other aircraft from C Flight were transferred to 617 Squadron which was being formed at RAF Scampton by Wing Commander Guy Gibson from the 21st of March 1943. It was being assembled specifically to carry out a mission code named “Operation Chastise” and would be using a new bomb code named “Upkeep” to attack the German dams in the Ruhr. As the dams were protected by anti torpedo nets the bomb had been designed by Barnes Wallis of the Vickers Aircraft Company to skip across the water and to sink against the dam walls. The attack was to be delivered by specially adapted Lancasters at night and at very low level during the full moon in May.
He and his crew transferred to the other side of the airfield where they began an intensive program of low flying over water at night.
The crews received their final briefing for the operation at 6pm on the 16th of May 1943, which lasted for two hours. Henry Young’s crew, were to be in the first wave of nine aircraft which was to head for the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams and would take off in groups of three at ten minute intervals. The second wave was to consist of five aircraft which would head for the Sorpe while the third wave, made up of five aircraft would take off 5 hours and 30 minutes later as a reserve.
Henry Young and his crew took off from RAF Scampton at 9.47pm on the 16th of May 1943 in Lancaster Mk III ED887 G AJ-A for the operation. One of the aircraft in the first wave had an engine problem and took off 20 minutes after the others had departed.
The leading wave arrived over the Möhne dam at 12.15am where Gibson assigned five of his remaining aircraft to make the attack. His was the first aircraft to attack, under fire from three light anti aircraft towers on top of the dam, and he dropped his bomb at 12.28am. The bomb landed against the dam wall, some 150 yards from the centre of it, where it exploded but did not breach it. Two further attacks had been made with no success when Henry Young began his run towards it for the fourth attack.
Mickey Martin’s Lancaster flew alongside him to bring fire onto the anti aircraft guns and to draw their fire away from Young’s aircraft. Young’s bomb also landed against the dam, did not breach it but created a crack in it which was seen by crew of the next aircraft to attack. The fifth attack also landed against the dam sending a 1,000 foot plume of water into the air but with no breach. As Gibson gave orders for the next aircraft to begin its attack run the dam began to crumble and then collapse, sending a wall of water down into the valley below.
Gibson then led the three aircraft still carrying their bombs towards the Eder dam which was breached by the third and last aircraft to make its attack. The code word sent back to Scampton to confirm the destruction of the Eder Dam was “Dinghy”. On its return home, Henry Young’s aircraft was crossing the Dutch coast at Castricum-aan-Zee when it was hit by anti aircraft fire from an enemy coastal flak battery and crashed into the sea at 2.58am with the loss of the entire crew.
The crew was: -
Squadron Leader Henry Melvin Young DFC and Bar (Pilot)
Sergeant David Taylor Hosfall (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Wilfred Ibbotson (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Vincent Sanford MacCausland RCAF (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Lawrence William Lauire” Nichols (Wireless Operator)
Flight Sergeant Charles Walpole Roberts (Navigator)
Sergeant Gordon Arthur Yeo (Front Gunner)
Five of the crew’s bodies were washed ashore over the next thirteen days, with Henry Young’s body and that of David Horsfall being washed ashore on the 29th of May 1943. They were buried two days later.
He is commemorated by the Melvin Young Room at Kent School, the Admissions office through which every new student passes through on their arrival at the school.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity College, Oxford.
A memorial to the crew was unveiled at Castricum-aan-Zee on the 18th of May 2018.
He is buried at Bergen General Cemetery Plot 2, Row D, Grave 4.